1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a control system for controlling automotive electric devices, and more particularly to a control system for controlling electric devices installed in an automotive slide door. More specifically, the present invention is concerned with a control system for controlling the door-installed electric devices by control switches which are installed in a vehicle body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to clarify the task of the present invention, one conventional control system of the above-mentioned type will be described with reference to FIG. 19.
For providing an electric connection between electric devices installed in a slide door and an electric power source installed in a vehicle body, there has been commonly used a contact pin type connector such as a connector 501 as shown in FIG. 19. The electric devices in the slide door are a door closure unit 502, a power window unit 503, an electromagnetic door lock unit 504 and the like. These units 502, 503 and 504 are remotely controlled by control switches which are installed in an associated vehicle body, such as, in driver's and/or passenger's cabin of the vehicle.
The contact pin type connector 501 generally comprises a body-side connector part 501a mounted to the vehicle body and a door-side connector part 501b mounted to the slide door. When, under closing movement, the slide door comes to or near to a half-latched position thereof, the door-side connector part 501b comes to contact with the body-side connector part 501a to provide an electric connection between the door-installed electric devices and the body-installed control switches. Upon this, the door-installed electric devices can be remotely controlled by the control switches.
However, due to unstable condition of the slide door assuming the half-latched position, the contact between the two connector parts 501a and 501b is very unstable, which tends induce malfunction or poor operation of the door-installed electric devices.
Japanese Patent First Provisional Publication 2-14920 shows a communication system which establishes a communication between a body-side control circuit and a door-side control circuit by using an infrared. For the communication, the door has an infrared ray emitter mounted thereto and the vehicle body has an infrared ray detector mounted thereto. However, due to nature of the infrared ray, this communication system tends to lower its performance greatly when at least one of the emitter and the detector is soiled. In fact, it is difficult to keep such devices clean because they have to be exposed to the open air when the slide door is opened.